Sending much love to them. BTW when I am trying to do something that is stressing me out...and my husband is standing there telling me how to do it...I have been known to tell him to shut up. "Shut up" is very endearing in the Southern US....and with us "hicks"...it means ... "Honey, I know that you have already done this and you are really trying to be kind and help, but for right now, can you just let me try to see if I can do it on my own?". We just like to save our words for other things, and "shut up" is easier.

Sending much love to them. BTW when I am trying to do something that is stressing me out...and my husband is standing there telling me how to do it...I have been known to tell him to shut up. "Shut up" is very endearing in the Southern US....and with us "hicks"...it means ... "Honey, I know that you have already done this and you are really trying to be kind and help, but for right now, can you just let me try to see if I can do it on my own?". We just like to save our words for other things, and "shut up" is easier.

I want to first say that it isn't a Kentucky "thing" for the man to be the BOSS. I cringed when I heard Mary speak those words last night but it isn't just a Kentucky "thing". You will find that type of male mentality (or lack thereof) in every state and every country. It is prevalent in some cultures. Is it right. No!!! I was born in eastern Kentucky about an hours drive from Stone. I have lived here for over 40 years in a town only slightly bigger than Stone. I just get tired of fighting the stereotypes.

That being said Mary seems to be able to take care of herself. When she was trying to climb the wall it seemed to me that her husband was being supportinve and trying to help and all she did was shout at him, telling him to shut up. In the beginning they were both nervous and at the end they were working under major stress sure they were going to be eliminated. This is a combination of emotions that can easily bring out the worst in any of us and cause us to say things that we don't really mean.

I don't want anyone to think that I am picking on Rudy. I'm not his post was just the one that caught my attention. I've read these forums for a long time, have no problems with Rudy and usually agree with him.

I just hope this experience will expand the horizons of Mary and her husband and she can bring this back to their children.

Well, I'm eating crow! After I posted about David and Mary, I rewatched my tape and you all are right. Mary told him to shut up and actually, they were going back n' forth at each other...AND there were compliments as well between them. So, I apologize for not getting the facts right...and for my hasty misjudgement this fine couple. Sorry if I offended anyone. :-\ Didn't mean to. Oh & btw, me's a SHE! I'm a crazy ladiiiee, crazy in love with Rudy Boesch, from Survivor One!

Love ya all,Ruday

p.s. Sorry I didn't get back here sooner to respond...it's been a crazy, busy week for me! Also, s1...just want to give you a very warm !!!! We're very happy to have you here! We welcome and appreciate your comments!

Thanks Rudy and somewhere in the deep recesses of my wandering mind seems like I knew you were a she not a he. Sorry about that. And I am very familiar with thee Rudy. Loved him in Survivor 1 or S1 hence my username. I'm not a frequent poster but am a constant reader. I am always amazed at the thorough job the people on this site do in studying all the vidcaps. It's also nice to be able to discuss the show, offer a different opinion and not be made to feel like you're an "idiot" because you disagreed with someone. I'm sure puddin' knows what I'm talking about. I look forward to hanging around!

S1 is a cool username...short n' sweet! I figured you must be a fan of Survivor1 and probably Rudy! Incidentally ....did you know Rudy had open heart surgery in August? I posted about it here somewhere ....In one of the S13 topics. Anything/Everything ( http://forum.realityfanforum.com/index.php/topic,10648.0.html )

Mary & David I am so proud of you for hanging in there. I know with your foot hurt Mary, the tasks had to be painful but as David said "suck it up" for your kids. You both are so entertaining to watch on TV as well as in real life.

So happy David and Mary are still in the Race, but sorry they fell victim to the new rules in a non-elimination. Gosh, a 30 min penalty?! Well I just wish them God speed and a whole bunch of good luck, b/c they're gonna need it!! I sooo hope things go their way and they STAY in the Race!! Even if they don't make it to the end, if they could get to F4 or F5, that would be great!

I live just south of you guys in Tennessee. But I do identify greatly with David and Mary. Despite all their bickering at times, I feel they have been edited pretty favorably. They have been shown supporting each other, and encouraging several of the other teams!!! I am proud that this poor family has gotten to experience this once in a lifetime trip around the world.

I wish The Powers That Be would select more down to earth teams like this, instead of so many model and actor wannabes!!!

Ah yes, Tan...not only down to earth folks on TAR, but on Survivor too!!

I truly appreciate peeps like D/M and their willingness to help other teams. What comes around goes around and hopefully that will be the case for them, and 1 or 2 teams will reciprocate. They sure do need help in the next eppy!

Bashful

Thanks for mentioning that Dave and Mary were on The View. I read that about 45 minutes before they were on here on the west coast! They compiled a nice montage of clips showing the kindness of Dave and Mary; it was awesome. Then Rosie told them all the things they were getting....it was so touching. I was laughing and crying at the same time! Just imagine the gifts they would have received if they had actually WON!!!

Bashful

I agree with you, CeeJay. The fact Dave and Mary were chosen for TAR really underscores the fact that there is a lot of LUCK--being in the right place at the right time--involved in being on these reality shows.

In general, just what is the percentage of contestants that are recruited, or sought after, rather than merely chosen on the basis of their applications? I think we've learned that it's fairly high. My one gripe is that there should be more average, working people on the reality shows. The producers of TAR choosing Dave and Mary was excellent, and overall, I think this season does show more of what TAR should be...excluding the models, cheerleaders and beauty queens! Though, I must admit the BQs are doing pretty well, and how do they manage to stay in such a good mood all the time? Deprived of food and sleep, and add STRESS, I just become a female Mr. Hyde!

From Amazing Race to The View: Team Kentucky Recalls Their Wild Ride by Rochell D. Thomas

Team Kentucky, The Amazing Race You have to know that you're a much-loved Amazing Race team when a show on a competing network hooks you up with lavish gifts. That's exactly what happened to Kentucky coalminer David Conley and his wife, Mary, this Tuesday when the CBS reality show cast-offs visited ABC's The View. "I can't even tell you how much I love them," Rosie O'Donnell told the studio audience before showering the couple with a new computer, a car, three family vacations and a house, among other things. TVGuide.com talked to Team Kentucky before their visit to that giftathon, er, The View. Here's what they had to say. TVGuide.com: You two just might be the most popular team this season. Why do you think America loves you?Mary: Because they never have just normal people on [The Amazing Race], ya know?David: It's always actors and models and beauty queens — people who've got nice jobs. A lot of the audience is just normal people like us. That's why America likes us.

TVGuide.com: Mary, in the last episode you said The Amazing Race changed the way you want to raise your children. What are you doing differently?Mary: On Labor Day we took the kids to Alabama to visit the ‘Bama girls. Cody, our oldest son — he's 10; Davy [just turned] 6 on Wednesday; and Hannah, she's going to be 7 Monday, the 13th. We'd never taken them anywhere, really. And then we gave them a choice of this summer coming up, of all the friends that we have now around the United States, "Where do you want to go?" They want to come to New York.

TVGuide.com: So you're going to do sort of an Amazing Race tour and visit team after team?Mary: Yeah, that's what we want to do. We'll visit Tom and Terry in New York.

TVGuide.com: David, how did you manage to get time off from the mine to do The Amazing Race?David: Well, I just told them I signed up for a reality show, and I really wanted the time off. They didn't act like it was really a big deal or nothin'. And I reckon they're happy they gave me the time off.

TVGuide.com: Why? Did they have viewing parties for you each week?Mary: No, we've been mostly keeping it to us and the kids and [David's] daddy. You don't know what they're going to show on TV, and I don't want other people to see me crying. We're very emotional people. It's just every week after every week reminds me of when I was on The Race.

TVGuide.com: Which episodes made you cry?Mary: Kuwait, with the Chos. And the last night was horrible for us. My kids really thought we won a million dollars, and that was the first time that they'd know that we didn't win.

TVGuide.com: Why'd they think you won?David: Because they'd ask us all the time, "Mom and Daddy, did you win?" And we were like, "Honey, we can't tell you." But because we didn't tell them that we did not win the million, I reckon in their little hearts they thought since we were still on TV, we won. Mary: We had to be here in New York. But I wanted to be there with them, because I know that their little hearts were broken.David: She cried herself to sleep.

TVGuide.com: On to a happier subject: You won a trip to Jamaica during the Kuwait leg. When will you take it?David: We gave it away to my dad because we was gone so long and he watched the kids.

TVGuide.com: You're too kind. What was your favorite part of The Race?Mary: I'll tell you it wasn't climbing the Great Wall of China, because I didn't want to be there. Oh, lord have mercy, no! I did not like that all. The hardest thing I've ever done in my life is climb that Great Wall of China.David: I really loved, loved being in Vietnam. Especially the second leg.

TVGuide.com: Isn't that the leg where you had to pull the oyster baskets? Why was that one of your favorites, when deep water is one of your biggest fears?David: Because I got to conquer that fear, and then just being in Vietnam woke me up to the fact that I was on a race. I hadn't ever rowed a boat or been out in the ocean.... And for me, it changed my life. I would want to put a kid in a boat now.

TVGuide.com: What'd you think of swimming across the bay in Mauritius?David: I didn't like that...Mary: Because, honestly, we just don't know how to swim.David: We go to swimming pools, but we'd never been in the ocean, really. That was difficult. I didn't know it was that hard to swim with a life jacket on. And it seemed like the boat was just getting farther and farther away, like we couldn't ever get to it. Then they tell us, "Turn around and swim back!"

TVGuide.com: How did you feel when you found the Cho brothers waiting for you.Mary: That was so sweet. You know that's not the first time they did that. In Mongolia, we were following them, and they stopped traffic because we'd gotten lost. We're going, "Just keep looking for the Chos," and the next thing we know, there's Erwin standing in the middle of the highway waving his hands.

TVGuide.com: So did the six-pack alliance start with the Chos?Mary: It was a little bit of both of us. When I talked to the producers, I told them, "We can't win this game without an alliance."

TVGuide.com: What did you think when you came in last place the second time, then found out you weren't eliminated again?David: That was kind of... Mary: Shocking. We honestly thought we were gone.

TVGuide.com: Did other teams treat you differently, like you'd been favored?David: A few did.Mary: Yeah. The first one, quite a few did. But the second one just made it worse. They were ready to "get rid of Kentucky."

TVGuide.com: They said that to you?Mary: No, we could just tell. During the race it was so much of a division between [the Models, the Beauty Queens, Rob and Kimberly] and us. They didn't want anything to do with us, and obviously, we didn't want anything to do with them. And so, they would have their own talks, and you could hear them talking.David: Watching at home, you probably think on airplanes we're getting sleep, but you're trying to get your locals to write down what you need in their language. You've also got one eye open and one eye shut, because other teams are making alliances. They never liked us from the beginning. We just knew it.

TVGuide.com: When you hurt your ankle in Mongolia, did you go to a doctor there?Mary: No, actually, I didn't see a doctor until the second leg in Vietnam. My ankle was as big as my thigh at that point.

TVGuide.com: What was that like?Mary: Wow. A group of five doctors and nurses came in. They were scaring me to death. They did an EKG on me like they figured everything in the world was wrong with me. I kept telling them, it's not my heart. It's my ankle. But they said it was badly sprained.

TVGuide.com: Towards the end, you looked slimmer. How much did you lose?Mary: Honestly, I don't know. I don't ever weigh myself, but I can tell you my clothes were falling off me. It's the most [exercise] I had ever done in my whole life, and I wasn't eating at all. We were afraid to spend our money because you don't know when you've got to get a cab ride. At the pit stop they mostly had seafood. I think they figured everybody loves seafood. And I don't.David: And if you were in China you eat the Chinese food. They had a lot of seafood, but they had the noodles and the soy sauce, and we'd never eaten stuff like that. We still don't like that.

TVGuide.com: Where'd you have the best food?David: Kuwait. It was almost American.Mary: We went to Burger King, that's why he's saying that.

TVGuide.com: How'd you even find a Burger King in Kuwait?Mary: We were in the airport for a long, long time, because it's when we got first place. We got to beg for money, and it was so fun. These people didn't mind [giving] their money away, and the first thing on his mind was Burger King.

TVGuide.com: Odd question: Now that you're back and life's changing, what are your New Year's resolutions?Mary: My New Year's resolution, and this time I really mean it, is I'm going to lose weight.David: My New Year's resolution is to quit smoking. I quit smoking before I went on The Race, but since I've gotten back, I might smoke 10 a day.

TVGuide.com: So you were going through nicotine withdrawal on The Race?David: Oh, no. Forget cigarettes. The thing that got me was no Mountain Dew. I drink probably 12 cans a day.Mary: At least. Of the regular kind, and not diet.David: Yeah, well. I like it, and I need my caffeine. But that was the hard thing for me. The Cho brothers made fun of me because everywhere we went I was looking for my Mountain Dew. Why doesn't any country have Mountain Dew?Mary: Because they probably know it isn't good for you.

TVGuide.com: Have you heard from Steven Seagal yet?Mary: No! [Laughs] I would freak out if I did, actually. We've got all his movies. We watch them all the time.